Lombardi, Vince

Notable Sports Figures
COPYRIGHT 2004 The Gale Group, Inc.

Vince Lombardi

1913-1970

American football coach

More than three decades after Vince Lombardi's death, books about this legendary and inspiring football coach are still making the best seller list. These books cover not only the details of his life and career but also his philosophy and practical approach to winning, which remains relevant today. His reputation as one of the most consistently successful coaches in professional football, with victories that include the first two Super Bowl games, makes Lombardi a subject of interest on and off the football field. Lombardi was famous for his locker room speeches, which provided his players with enough motivation to win games in spite of the odds stacked against them. As he gained championships, business people took notice of Lombardi's tactics, and often invited him to speak, realizing that the same winning principles could be used in their companies.

The Early Years

Vince Lombardi was born on June 11, 1913, to second-generation Italian immigrant parents. His father, Harry, was known as a big-hearted man, who wanted to give his children everything that he had had to do without in his childhood. They lived in comfortable homes and enjoyed all the necessities of life. Harry and his wife Matilda encouraged their children to seek the education that had alluded them, resulting in all three of their sons eventually receiving a college educations. One of the lessons that Harry passed onto his sons was the virtue of hard work. Thus Lombardi, from a young age, helped his father in the family butcher shop. He quickly learned how to heave enormously heavy sides of meat around the store and how to cut up the carcasses, a job he was not fond of. However, the weightlifting helped to shape his body, an asset that would later come to his aid in his athletic endeavors.

As a teenager, Lombardi fell in love with sports and would drag his friends to Yankee and Dodger baseball games and to the football stadium to watch the Giants.

He also often played sandlot football games, most of which he organized and then dictated the rules, insisting that they be followed correctly. His father encouraged his son's football interests, although his mother did not. She feared that he would be hurt.

When it was time to enter high school, Lombardi decided upon Cathedral College of the Immaculate Conception Preparatory Seminary, a school not unlike other local Catholic high schools—except for the fact that the main focus of the school was to turn its scholars into priests, a role that at one time Lombardi thought he wanted to pursue. Lombardi became the center on the school's basketball team, a position in which he flourished. On the baseball team, he played outfielder and catcher. As a baseball player, he was not as adept, but his coach admired his courage. After three years at Cathedral, Lombardi decided against a religious profession and came up with a new plan. He decided to transfer to another high school and play football his senior year with the intention of winning a college scholarship. The plan worked better than he expected.

Lombardi first won a scholarship to St. Francis Prep High School in Brooklyn where he played guard on defense and halfback on offense and was described as aggressive and powerful. He also reportedly played every minute of every game. He was well liked by his teammates and his classmates and earned the respect of his teachers and coaches, who eventually helped him win a football scholarship to Fordham University. On the college level, Lombardi continued to play both offense and defense positions. In his senior year, after a particularly hard fought battle against Pittsburgh, the New York Post ran a feature story about him, referring to him as a New York hero.

First Coaching Position

After graduating from college, Lombardi floundered a bit as he tried to figure out what he wanted to do with the rest of his life. He had a degree in business, so he first tried his hand at that but was soon discouraged. Next, he thought he would try to obtain a law degree, but after one semester, he knew that was not what he wanted. Then he worked as a chemist for one year, but that also was not something that inspired him. He liked being around young people and thought about teaching and coaching. Then in 1939, Lombardi received a phone call from a former college classmate who asked him if he would accept a teaching job at St. Cecilia High School in Englewood, New Jersey. The teaching position would also offer Lombardi a chance to coach. Lombardi accepted, and this job would mark the beginning of his long, successful career in coaching.

The job at St. Cecilia's was a difficult one. Lombardi had to teach physics, chemistry, Latin, and physical education on top of coaching basketball and assisting with football. But Lombardi later claimed that his eight years at that high school were some of the best years of his life. As a coach, Lombardi was a strict disciplinarian. He studied each sport intensely, breaking it down into systematic and logical portions. Then he taught regimented plays and expected his players to follow his rules completely. A few complained that he held tight reins on his players, but most appreciated his system and enjoyed playing for him. Others noted that he frequently lost his temper whenever a player repeated a mistake. Lombardi was also known for throwing things or kicking when he got angry. However, he was a winning coach, so the dramatics were usually tolerated. When Lombardi later announced his resignation from St. Cecilia and his acceptance to become an assistant football coach at Fordham, the community gave him a farewell dinner.

College Football

Lombardi honed his coaching skills for six years on the campuses of Fordham University and the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. The prospects at Fordham were not very encouraging when Lombardi arrived there in 1947. At that time, the university's football record was so depressing that Lombardi believed that his St. Cecelia's varsity squad could have defeated the college team. He accepted the job, hoping that the head coach position might soon be available to him. Many people at Fordham held the same thought and tried unsuccessfully to oust the head coach, Ed Danowski. Popular sentiment for Danowski made the plan backfire, however, and Lombardi's reputation suffered in the aftermath. The atmosphere at Fordham was ruined for him, however, and after one year he left to take a job at West Point.

Colonel Earl Blaik, the head coach at West Point, was famous for his excellent training of assistant coaches. He was so good that almost every year he had to replace his assistants because they moved on to head coaching positions at other colleges. Blaik's military discipline and natural inclination toward perfectionism matched Lombardi's personality.

Chronology

1913

Born June 11 in the Sheepshead Bay section of Brooklyn, New York, to Harry and Matilda Izzo Lombardi

1929

Enrolls as high school freshman at Cathedral College of the Immaculate Conception Preparatory Seminary to study to become a priest, where he plays on both the basketball and baseball teams

1937

Plays guard for the semiprofessional team, the Wilmington Clippers, from Delaware

1938

Plays for the Brooklyn Eagles, a semiprofessional team affiliated with the American Football Association. Later this year, he enrolls at Fordham's Law School

1939-47

Works as teacher and coach of basketball, baseball, and football at St. Cecilia High School in Englewood, New Jersey

1940

Marries Marie Planitz

1942

Vincent, Jr. is born on April 27

1947

Susan, Lombardi's daughter, is born on February 18. Lombardi accepts the assistant football coach position at Fordham

1949-53

Works as assistant football coach at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point

1954-58

Coaches the offensive team for the New York Giants

1959-68

Is head coach and general manager of the Green Bay Packers

1969-70

Head coach, business manager, and part owner of the Washington Redskins

1970

Dies on September 3

Awards and Accomplishments

1956

Helped coach the New York Giants to NFL Championship

1958

Assisted in taking the New York Giants to another NFL Championship game

1960

Took Green Bay Packers to league Championship

1961-62, 1965

Coached Packers to victories in league Championships

1967

Led Green Bay Packers to victory in first Super Bowl game.

1968

Won Super Bowl II.

1970

Inducted as a charter member to the Fordham University Hall of Fame. Also has the Super Bowl trophy renamed in his honor. Rotary Club dedicates an annual Lombardi Award to outstanding football linesmen. The NFL named Lombardi their 1960s Man of the Year

1971

Inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame

1975

Inducted into the Green Bay Packer Hall of Fame Lombardi's overall professional coaching record was 105-35-6.

After winning the Eastern championship in 1952, officials at West Point decided to downplay football. About this same time, the executives of the New York Giants had offered Blaik a chance to take on the head coach position,

but Blaik turned them down. Then the Giants, who also needed to fill an assistant coach slot, asked Blaik if they could offer that job to Lombardi; Blaik gave his approval. So in 1954, Lombardi said good-bye to West Point and headed back to his hometown with his first assignment in the professional leagues.

Moving up with the Giants

Lombardi turned forty-one during his first year with the Giants, approaching middle age in professional football. But he still had a lot to prove, and so did the Giants. Steve Owen had been the head coach for the Giants for twenty-three years. His glory days, such as in the 1934 Championship game against the Chicago Bears in a freezing rain, were behind him. Owen had one of his worst seasons in 1953, winning only three games. So the Giants offered Owen a front office job and brought Lombardi in as offensive coordinator, with Jim Lee Howell as head coach, and as defensive coach, Tom Landry , who later led the Dallas Cowboys to several championship games. Lombardi and Landry were as opposite as two people could be, except that they both had strong minds and huge imaginations that served the Giants well. They were very competitive and their respective squads got caught up in the contest to outdo one another.

The Giants reached a turning point in the mid-fifties and went all out, recruiting some of the top college players, including All-American Frank Gifford , whom Lombardi quickly recognized as one of the key players for the Giants' offense. Gifford had almost quit the team the year before and he was not sure Lombardi's arrival would make much difference. However Gifford quickly became his star, helping to take the Giants to first place in the Eastern Conference three years in a row, winning the right to play in the NFL Championship Games in 1956, 1957, and 1958.

If the Giants experienced a turning point upon Lombardi's arrival, Lombardi himself experienced one after successfully completing his fourth year with the New York team. In 1958, Earl Blaik decided to resign as head coach at West Point and most people thought that Lombardi would be Army's first choice to replace him. However, the academy decided to stick with tradition and to hire a West Point graduate. When Lombardi heard the news that he was no longer in contention for the position, he turned his attention to Wisconsin's Green Bay Packers, a team with a long winning history that had suffered through several losing seasons. The 1958 season ended with Green Bay eking out only one victory. Although the executives at Green Bay knew very little about Lombardi, Blaik and Paul Brown , head coach of the Chicago Bears, highly recommended him, and on January 28, Lombardi signed a five-year contract with the team in the dual role of head coach and general manager.

Legendary Years with the Packers

By the time that Lombardi arrived in Green Bay, his knowledge of football was as strong as the best professional coaches in the league. His task in those first few months was to get to know the players. The New York Giants and the Packers were in different conferences, so Lombardi had had little opportunity to see them play. He had been right to choose Gifford as his key player for the Giants, and he needed to find someone similar for the Packers. His intuitions told him that player might be Paul Hornung , a Heisman Trophy winner from Notre Dame. Like Bart Starr , an equally talented young Packers player, Hornung considered quitting the team after suffering through a first miserable year with the Packers. However, something about Lombardi made both players want to give football one more chance. Hornung became Lombardi's left halfback and Starr his quarterback. Both proved to be wise choices.

Lombardi's genius was demonstrated in many ways, but the one that his players appreciated the most was the way he reduced each play down to its basic elements. Lombardi threw out much of the repetitive jargon that many coaches forced their players to memorize. Instead of a code system, Lombardi used one number to designate each play. The playbook that each player had to memorize was one-third the size of other coaches' playbooks. He also relieved some of the pressure on the quarterback by having offensive linemen call their own blocking patterns. He was a tough disciplinarian, but he knew the game, and the players admired his knowledge and the way he taught. Having had experience in the classroom, Lombardi knew that he had to make each and every player understand his system of football. Although repetitive, his method of teaching was rarely dull, for he had a way of making everything that he and his players did seem of utmost importance.

Lombardi also drilled into their heads that his players represented the Packers on and off the field. This meant that on trips, they were required to wear their blazers and ties at all times while in public. He also enforced strict curfews and rules of social conduct that they were required to follow. Right before their first practice, as quoted in Michael O'Brien's book, Vince: A Personal Biography of Vince Lombardi, Lombardi told his new team, "I've never been a losing coach, and I don't intend to start here.… I'm going to find thirty-six men who have the pride to make any sacrifice to win." He then added that if any of them sitting in front of him were not capable or not willing to do so, he would find someone to replace them. Later, he confided to one of the veteran players, Max McGee, that he had been concerned that they might all stand up and leave town at the end of his speech.

For the nine years that Lombardi worked with the Packers he never saw a losing season. In those nine years, the Packers played six League Championship games, winning five of them. They also won the first and second Super Bowl games. With Lombardi at the helm, the Packers seemed unstoppable. However the wear and tear, both physical and emotional, on Lombardi began to show, and after winning Super Bowl II, he announced his retirement.

The Last Years

It did not take long for Lombardi to realize that retirement was not for him. He had tried to keep himself busy promoting products for several commercial companies as well as maintaining his responsibilities as general manager of the Packers. As the NFL Players' Association gained strength and threatened to strike, Lombardi became involved in the negotiations. However, this was not enough to satisfy him. So when the owners of the Washington Redskins made him an offer in February of 1969, it did not take long for Lombardi to accept it. He was made head coach, general manager, and part-owner of the team.

Like the Packers, the Redskins were an old franchise that had seen its glory years. Lombardi turned them around, making their 1969 season one of the best in their history. Sonny Jurgensen, the beloved quarterback for the Skins—an excellent passer who had suffered many years with poorly coached defensive teams—became what Frank Gifford and Paul Hornung had been before him. Had Lombardi lived longer, the Redskins may have enjoyed a longer winning streak, but that was not in the plans. On June 24, 1970, Lombardi entered Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, DC, for tests. The results determined that he had colon cancer. Although Lombardi fought his disease with his usual pattern of strict discipline and prayer, he succumbed to the disease on September 3.

When Football Mattered

What has changed most clearly from Lombardi's era is … the dramatic shift in the balance of power between players and their bosses because of big money and free agency. Would that shift have necessarily led to the Old Man's failure and broken heart? Only if one believes that his leadership style was inflexible and wholly dependent on his not-so-benevolent despotism. But that is buying into the myth of Lombardi. The reality is that behind his seemingly quaint notions of spartan discipline, team love, and obedience to the leader, he was surprisingly adaptable. … Had he livedlonger, he would have persisted in that philosophy, adjusting to the changing times and in so doing making the times bend a little to him. …

Source: David Maraniss. Esquire, September 1997, p. 80.

A story in the Green Bay Press-Gazette on September 8, 1970, stated that at a dinner party at the White House, President Nixon, upon hearing of Lombardi's death, proclaimed that Lombardi was a "man who in a time when the moral fabric of the country seems to be coming apart, he was a man who was deeply devoted to his family … at a time when permissiveness is the order of the day.… he was a man who insisted on discipline … and strength." A few days before he died, Lombardi received a large bouquet of flowers in his hospital room. As reported in David Maraniss's book, When Pride Still Mattered, the card attached to the flowers read: "You are a great coach and a great individual to all of us." The card was signed by the National Football League Players Association.

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Vince Lombardi

Encyclopedia of World Biography
COPYRIGHT 2004 The Gale Group Inc.

Vince Lombardi

Vince Lombardi (1913-1970) was one of the most successful football coaches in the history of the game. His penchant for winning and doing one's best left a strong imprint on the game, as well as on players and fans.

Vincent Lombardi was born the first of five children in Brooklyn, New York, on June 11, 1913. The son of an Italian immigrant, he was raised in a strict religious Catholic atmosphere. After spending two years studying for the priesthood, he changed his mind and transferred to St. Francis Preparatory where he starred as full-back. Upon high school graduation he majored in business at Fordham University and starred on the football team at guard, where he was a member of Fordham's famous "Seven Blocks of Granite." He graduated magna cum laude in 1937 and worked for a finance company during the day while attending evening classes in law. In 1939 he accepted a position at St. Cecelia High School in Englewood, New Jersey, as an assistant football coach and teacher. He taught Latin, algebra, physics, and chemistry. In 1942 he became head coach, and from 1942 to 1946 he compiled a record of 39 wins, seven losses, five ties, including a winning streak of 25 games and an unbeaten streak of 32.

In 1947 he accepted a position at his alma mater, Fordham, as freshman football coach and one year later moved up to be an assistant at the varsity level. But it was at West Point, in 1949, that Lombardi developed his basic coaching philosophy while he served as an assistant to the most successful college coach in the country: Red Blaik. Lombardi was influenced by Blaik's concept of keeping football simple (blocking and tackling) and of achieving perfect execution by constant repetition in practice. In addition, Lombardi picked up numerous expressions which were to become his trademarks, such as "There is no substitute for victory" (Douglas MacArthur) and "You have to pay
the price" (Red Blaik). Working primarily with the offensive line, Lombardi soon established himself as an enthusiastic workaholic, putting in as much as 16 or 17 hours daily.

His penchant for hard work and organization for detail paid off when he was hired in 1954 as an assistant to Jim Lee Howell of the New York Giants. Vince was in charge of the offense, and Tom Landry, future coach of the Dallas Cowboys, was in charge of the defense. It was here that a pattern emerged which was to follow Lombardi in future years, that of inheriting a poor team and turning it into a winner. The year before Lombardi went to the Giants, they had lost nine of 12 games and had scored the fewest number of points in the league. In the five years that Lombardi was an assistant with the Giants, they never had a losing season. Part of the reason was Lombardi's decision to build the offense around untested Frank Gifford, who had been used primarily on defense the previous year. Gifford possessed great speed, hands, and blocking talent, along with the ability to pass, and Lombardi created offensive plays which used these skills to such an advantage that Gifford was nominated to the pro bowl all five years that Lombardi was with the Giants.

By 1957 Lombardi had become a desirable coaching commodity to other professional clubs, and in 1958 he accepted a five-year contract as head coach of the Green Bay Packers. Cast into the leadership role of a professional head coach for the first time, Vince changed from a coach who was quite openly friendly with the players to more of an aloof leader whose violent temper soon became his trademark along with his supposed passion for winning. (The slogan "Winning isn't everything, it's the only thing, " has been unfairly attributed to Lombardi, when in actuality he believed making the effort was most important.)

Having only won one game the previous year, Lombardi's Packers proceeded to win seven games his first year and thereafter won six divisional titles, five National Football League championships, and two Super Bowls (I and II). His success during this period placed him at the pinnacle of his profession, and he was looked upon as the master of the game. While much of the credit should go to Lombardi, it should be noted that he inherited an ideal situation in Green Bay. He was, as they say, the right man at the right time.

At this time, Green Bay was looked upon by others in the league as Siberia, with few attractions for players since there was little to do except play and think football. This fit in quite well with Lombardi's spartan ethos. Added to this was the fact that the public liked Lombardi so much that players had little chance of doing anything besides football, since Lombardi was notified by fans wherever the players turned up—within or outside of curfew. The team Lombardi inherited actually wasn't as bad as the previous year's record might indicate; it had a solid core of talent ready to be developed. Chief among them were Paul Hornung, who possessed all of the qualities of a Frank Gifford and who could also kick field goals, and a 16th-round quarterback draft pick named Bart Starr. Both became all stars and legends.

With several top draft choices and shrewd trading, Lombardi surrounded himself with players who were willing to take his tongue lashings to go the extra yard in order to become winners. He treated all players the same ("like dogs, " one player remarked) and never had the racial problems some other teams had at the time. So formidable was the Packer running attack that today the term "The Green Bay Sweep" is etched in football terminology.

Exhausted after the 1967 season, Lombardi retired as head coach and stayed on as general manager of the Packers. It wasn't long before he realized his mistake, and in 1969 he left Green Bay to become head coach of the Washington Redskins. He soon led them to their first winning season in more than a decade.

Lombardi was a popular public figure in America and was looked upon as a spokesperson for values which many felt were being discarded during the permissive 1960s. Businessmen, politicians, and church leaders looked to him for direction. Earl Warren, retired Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, noted, "He had the ability to build the kind of character we need in these times." With such a following, it came as a shock to the public after the 1969 season to learn that Lombardi had intestinal cancer. Over 500 letters of encouragement a day poured in from the across the country, including a telegram from President Nixon. On September 3, 1970, Vince Lombardi died. Thousands poured out for his funeral, which was held not only in Washington, D.C., but in New York as well.

After his death Lombardi was inducted into the professional football Hall of Fame and today is honored by having his name adorn the trophy awarded to the NFL Super Bowl champions. His reputation as a man far exceeded that of a coach. In 11 seasons as head coach he won 149 games; in contrast, the winningest football coach was Eddie Robinson of Grambling State University, who set the record in 1985 with 324 victories.

Further Reading

Instant Replay (1968) and Winning Is the Only Thing (1971), both by Jerry Kramer, and Lombardi (1971) by John Wiebusch give good descriptions of what Lombardi was like to players and acquaintances. Tom Dowling's Coach: A Season with Lombardi (1970) describes his last year of coaching for the Washington Redskins and his realization that talent—not just effort alone—wins football games. Run to Daylight (1968) by Vince Lombardi is an account of the 1967 football season and is enlightening for its visualization of a typical season with Lombardi. For those interested in Lombardi's coaching techniques, see Vince Lombardi on Football, George L. Flynn, editor (1973). A look at Lombardi and his impact on Green Bay players 20 years later is provided in Distant Replay (1985) by Jerry Kramer and Dick Schaap.

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Lombardi, Vince

The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.

Copyright The Columbia University Press

Vince Lombardi (Vincent Thomas Lombardi), 1913–70, American football coach, b. New York City. As a student at Fordham, he was a member of the famed
"Seven Blocks of Granite"
line. After great success as a high school coach (1939–46), Lombardi coached at Fordham and West Point. Entering professional football in 1954, he was a coach with the New York Giants. In 1958 he became head coach of the Green Bay Packers. In nine seasons with the Packers (1958–68), he led the team to six conference titles and five championships, including victories in the first two Super Bowls (1967–68). In 1968 he became general manager of the club, but in 1969–70 he moved to coach the Washington Redskins. He was elected to the Professional Football Hall of Fame in 1971.

See D. Maraniss, When Pride Still Mattered (1999).

Cite this article Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography.

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